


The Keeps on Giving Job

by huntformagic



Category: Leverage
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, F/M, Gift Giving, Holidays, M/M, Multi, Ugly Holiday Sweaters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-01
Updated: 2021-01-01
Packaged: 2021-03-11 05:27:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,081
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28449924
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/huntformagic/pseuds/huntformagic
Summary: This whole thing was Hardison's fault. A challenge to get just 2 presents for his partners for Christmas. That shouldn't have been too difficult for a retrieval specialist. Right?
Relationships: Alec Hardison/Parker/Eliot Spencer
Comments: 10
Kudos: 29
Collections: 2020 Leverage Secret Santa Exchange





	The Keeps on Giving Job

**Author's Note:**

  * For [amarane (aeternalegacy)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/aeternalegacy/gifts).



> You asked for fluffy domesticity with the OT3. Hopefully, this lives up to your expectations. I didn't manage to fit in the eggnog but there are a couple of other cute holiday things I hope you'll enjoy it.  
> This was supposed to only be like 3,000 words but I kept getting more ideas and it ended up a bit longer than expected. I originally started with just one prompt, I swear, but it seemed like everyone wanted to have their own little cute holiday moment. Oh well, I had fun writing it.  
> Happy Holidays!

**December 24th, 12 hours until Christmas**

Eliot knew that he was screwed. It was Christmas Eve, less than 5 hours before he had to be back at the Brewpub to put the roast beef in the oven and finish up all the sides. Less than 7 hours until he was expected to be sitting down with his partners enjoying a traditional Christmas Eve dinner. Less than 20 hours until Nate and Sophie's flight was scheduled to land on Christmas Morning. Over a month of searching and he had no results to show for it, no presents for the two most important people in his life. Nothing to represent to them just how much they meant to him. 

It was their first Christmas Eve with just the three of them. No Nate or Sophie to act like parents. Which was fine. Eliot just got to spend time with his two favorite people. A nice quiet evening where they would eat together and Hardison would laugh and Parker would put on Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer even though she had already watched it 3 times in the past week. But that night, they'd exchange presents and Eliot had nothing for them. He was so screwed. 

**November 1st, 54 days until Christmas**

Hardison had started the problem. The day after Halloween he had called his partners into the job debriefing area. Eliot came in last, having just finished up prep for the brewpub’s dinner rush. Parker was already propped up at her favorite seat on the bar looking at the screen behind Hardison. It brightly displayed, “Family Christmas: Do’s and Dont’s of Gift Giving”.

“Oh, you’ve gotta be kidding me,” Eliot grumbled as he sat down next to Parker, leaning over to give her a quick kiss on the cheek as he did so. 

She smiled at the peck and whispered back, “Let him have some fun, he doesn’t get to do these presentations as often now.” They had done away with the formal job introduction sessions once Nate and Sophie had left, Parker insisted it was “too rigid” for her style of leadership. A sit down over a good meal prepared by Eliot was much more practical in her mind. 

“Halloween was yesterday, the man can’t even give Thanksgiving some room to breathe?” Parker just laughed in response and turned towards Hardison who had been patiently waiting to begin. “Alright, let’s start this thing then.” Eliot tilted his chin at the screen so Hardison would begin. 

“So we all know that Christmas will be a little bit different this year for us. Therefore, I propose some new restrictions on gifts.” Hardison flipped to the next slide. It read “Price Range” at the top. “I know we all could afford just about anything for a gift. That’s not a real challenge. Instead, I propose that we limit ourselves to $20 per person this year.”

Parker murmured, “Twenty bucks isn’t a lot of money for me to count.”

Hardison didn't even acknowledge her commentary and continued through his spiel, "We can literally steal anything worth any significant amount of money. Anything that we think we might want, we already have.”

“But only $20 bucks? Our waitstaff makes more than that in an hour.” Eliot objected. He was all for cheaper presents but even his parents had managed to scrounge up more than that for Christmas. 

Hardison grimaced, “Alright. Then why not forty? It’s not so expensive and will prevent over the top, shiny presents.” Parker opened her mouth but Hardison pressed on, “Not that there’s anything wrong with shiny things. We love your crow-like habits babe, but something a little bit different this year maybe? Please?” He looked so enthusiastic about the idea, it was adorable. “With Nana, we never spent more than 10 dollars on each other at the holidays. With so many siblings running around it was hard for Nana to afford a lot of big presents. But if we all got each other something small, it would fill up underneath the scrawny plastic Christmas tree we reused every year.” His eyes were lit up telling them about his past. 

Eliot and Parker turned to look at each other and had a silent conversation. Hardison wouldn’t be asking for this so desperately unless it meant a lot to him. They nodded together. “Alright,” Eliot replied slowly, “Forty bucks it is.” Hardison just beamed in reply and went to the next slide, this one labeled “Sourcing”. 

"With these new restrictions, we also are going to need to limit where these presents come from. Nothing stolen, nothing regifted, nothing pulled out of anyone's storage from past jobs." He paused to allow for any questions or objections, when none were raised, he quickly continued. "You only need to buy one gift, not two tiny things, just one. That way everyone gets the same amount of presents under the tree. Which brings me to my next requirement." Hardison flipped to what Eliot hoped was the last slide of this presentation. Gifts shouldn't have a ton of rules set upon them. This slide was titled "Get Creative!" The only thing written below the title was "DO NOT JUST GET PARKER CASH!!!" 

Parker pouted before Hardison could even finish reading the slide. "Momma, I know. You're always happy with cash but we're in a relationship now. We should be able to get you something more personal than the same gift you get from Nate every year." 

Eliot just rolled his eyes at her pout and leaned over to give her a small shoulder shove. "Let him have his fun, Parker. If you don't like what we get I'm sure we'll be able to find some cash for you to sort through before Saint Nick arrives." 

"Fine," Parker replied, "But I'm going to find better presents for you to than you'll be able to for me."

"I don't know babe, Nana had praised my gift-giving skills since my first Christmas with her. I am a home crafter extraordinaire when it comes to coming up with something." Hardison slowly approached his two partners, eyes intent. 

"Oh please," Eliot replied, "Who is the retrieval expert here? Getting specific items where they need to go is my whole job. This will be a piece of cake." He pushed himself up from his seat with both hands on the bar. He leaned over and stole a kiss from Hardison before quickly turning and heading back to the kitchen. The dinner rush was about to begin, he had orders to fill. Besides, two months was plenty of time to find just 2 presents for the people he knew best in the world. He'd be fine. 

**November 24th, 31 days until Christmas**

Eliot refused to even look at a store for Christmas presents until after Thanksgiving. It may have been a shit holiday but it was tradition, it shouldn't be lumped in with Christmas. Besides, the best deals always happened just after Thanksgiving, not before. With the limited budget he had available this year, he really had to make sure he used his money to the fullest. That wasn't to say that he didn't at least look around a bit. A good retrieval specialist always did their research on the location of the item they were getting. There was only so much intel that a client would usually provide on their own. In this case, neither of his clients were at all helpful in narrowing down what they might want. He had no idea what direction he should take his presents. Eliot was stumped. Parker wasn’t exactly the kind of girl that you got a heart-shaped silver necklace for. Hardison wasn’t the kind of guy you got an engraved knife for. Which was wonderful, he loved his partners for how different they were. How they never conformed to what outsiders might think of them unless they were on a job. He'd never want them to change for anyone. Eliot just didn't want them to have to fake enjoying his presents. 

As November had started drawing to a close, Eliot had tried to find something that seemed fitting. He must have scrolled through a dozen different online shops and added probably 20 different things to his various carts, only to remove them because they just weren't quite perfect. Hardison found him on his phone scrolling during the lull between lunch and dinner.

"Sooooo," Hardison began eloquently, "Have you thought of anything as far as Parker's ideas yet?"

"It's not even Thanksgiving yet Hardison," Eliot grumbled and continued scrolling.

"Yeah, I know but like... any ideas? Because I've been drawing a blank." Hardison shifted a little bit closer, attempting to look at Eliot's screen and catch a glimpse. 

Eliot locked the phone and set it face down on the bar top. "Well some of us know not to try and find a present until it's actually present giving season." It came out a bit harsher than Eliot had meant for it too, the frustration of his own gift search seeping through his tone.

"Alright Scrooge," Hardison put up both of his hands and took a step back.

Eliot sighed, "Sorry. I've got a lot on my mind right now. No, I haven't found anything for Parker yet. She isn't exactly the kind of girl you get a promise ring for. Not to mention that this budget limitation makes it pretty much impossible to get her anything to add to her climbing gear."

"Yeah," Hardison sighed, "I guess it'll be difficult. Not like I can make it snow again to surprise her this year, weatherman's already predicting Portland's gonna be blanketed in a couple of inches by Christmas morning." 

"One, there is no way that you managed to get it to snow for her when we were in Boston. Two, weather reports this far out are completely unreliable. The weatherman's just saying what he knows everyone wants to hear." 

"Man, any weather pattern is predictable if you know how to hack into NOAA's mainframe and use their satellite data to compile your own algorithms." Hardison beamed at Eliot. He was a very proud man for having just admitted to what was probably a couple of different felonies. 

"Okay, I'll allow that is at least feasible, based on my own limited technical skills. But making it snow in Boston? No way you managed that." 

Hardison slid a little closer, whispering in Eliot's ear. "Believe what you want babe. It's cute when you try to think about tech things through. You get this adorable little furrow in your brow." He gave Eliot a small kiss on the corner of his mouth and leaned back again. "Besides, when I said geeks run the world, I believe the weather is included as part of the world." As Hardison turned to go back through the kitchen to the main section of the Brewery he stopped. "I would also recommend that anyone who were say, looking for a present for his technical genius of a boyfriend, not do those searches on a phone that said boyfriend regularly checks for security breaches. Or on broadband that said hacking extraordinaire has run all searches through his computer to make sure no one is using it for nefarious purposes." Then he quickly ducked through the door to the kitchen. 

"Dammit Hardison!" Eliot yelled after him. Eliot ruled out online purchases from his mind. Looks like he was going to have to do his Christmas shopping the old-fashioned way. 

**November 28th, 27 days until Christmas**

The day after Thanksgiving was always refreshing to Eliot. It was when he finally started allowing himself to enjoy some of the holiday cheer. Parker and Hardison started pushing the "holiday spirit" as soon as they had packed up the last rubber spider from Halloween. If it were up to just those two, they'd probably start putting up Christmas decorations right after. Eliot had managed to convince them to wait at least until Thanksgiving though. So the next morning found Hardison putting up decorations around the Brewpub. He always made sure to have a variety of holidays represented. He'd put up menorahs along with the windows of one side of the bar. The other side would display various Kinara for Kwanzaa. Above the fireplace, he usually had a Yule Log set up and decorated. And of course, Parker insisted that there be a Christmas tree set up right in front of the spiral staircase leading upstairs. The tree they used was a reasonable size, with light prewired through its plastic trunk and large ornaments clearly just there to make the tree look nice. Throughout the month Eliot would usually come down the stairs and find that Parker had snuck on some large jewel or piece of treasure while no one was paying attention. Usually, by the time Christmas morning rolled around, the tree ended up with a lot more glittery objects on it than it had started the month with. 

Eliot usually didn't have to help with putting up any of the decorations. Not that he never offered. Hardison just always seemed so detail-oriented and he had a specific vision in mind. Even when Eliot did decide to help, it led to a bit more tension than fit with the holiday decor. After last year's centerpiece debacle, he chose to stay out of it during the process. Parker would be there to help if Hardison tried to do too much on her own anyway. And besides, Eliot had shopping to do. He had his whole plan mapped out. He would start with downtown local stores. When the group went on dates, Parker almost always ended up with some new knick-knack from one of the tourist shops. There was even a comic book shop that Hardison frequented. It was the perfect place to start looking for presents. Or at least, it should've been. 

Three hours into his shopping trip Eliot had yet to find anything that was actually decent. Sure there were plenty of board games and expensive chocolates but they didn't seem right. He was entering store number six when his phone started to ring. The caller ID read "Unknown number" which is what Hardison had set his name in Eliot's phone as. Eliot answered on the second ring. 

"What do you need, Hardison?"

"Man, why are you always thinking I'm needing something? Can't I just call to check up on my favorite boyfriend every once in a while?"

"I have been gone for only 3 hours. You are supposed to be in the middle of decorating. I know how you get when it comes to decorating the pub. If you interrupted to call me, it must have been for something serious. Now, what is it?" Eliot kept the phone pressed between his ear and shoulder as he started looking around the shop. 

"Busted," Hardison sighed, "Soooo Parker might have broken the tree."

"She what?!" Eliot said a little bit louder than necessary. The other store patrons looked his way, the girl looking behind the cash register glared at him. Eliot gave her his best "sorry ma'am won't happen again" smile before turning around and heading out of the store. "How did she even manage that?" He asked in a harsh whisper. 

"Well remember how last year she used one of her rigs on the crossbeams above the tree? And remember how when we renovated over the summer said beams were removed?" Hardison paused, "Well we might have decided to put up the tree anyway so she was just climbing on top of the tree and balancing but, fun fact, a fake tree that doesn't have all of its branches isn't easy to balance on and the whole thing toppled over as she went to put the top piece on. When it fell the tree managed to hit the bar and bend one of the center poles. Unless we want a half sideways tree, we're gonna need to find something else this year. "

Eliot sighed and brought his hand up to his forehead to rub away the headache he could feel starting, "She's okay though right?" 

A little further away from the phone, he heard Parker yell back "I'm fine, don't worry so much. A 12-foot fall isn't anything significant." 

"Babe, I don't think the height reminder is gonna help him be less of a worrier," Hardison shouted in reply before answering into the phone. "Yeah, she's doing fine. Just a bruise or two but we don't have a tree. Now if our wonderful hitter/ boyfriend could keep an eye out for a replacement tree, we would be eternally grateful."

"Alright," Eliot grunted. "I still have some shopping to do though so I'll be a bit."

"That's fine babe," Hardison replied, "What was it you were shopping for again?" Eliot could hear the smirk in Hardison's tone. 

"None of your business. I'll be back when I'm back." With that Eliot hung up the call and dialed a new number as he began the walk towards his car. The call was answered on the second ring. "Hey Toby, you mentioned that one of your students was working a tree lot of some side cash this year, right? Any chance you could give me the address for that?"

It was another 2 hours before Eliot made it back to the Brewpub. He hadn't expected it to take so long but real trees were a lot harder to transport than collapsible ones. It was a beautiful tree. Thirteen feet tall, just in that day from a local tree farm. It was a bit steeper in price that Eliot was used to for a tree but Parker and Hardison were worth it. As he pulled up he texted Hardison to come out to the back with Parker. 

The look on their faces when he took off the tarp for the truck was worth every penny that he had spent. Hardison had complained that it would mess with his allergies. Parker had done a running leap and hugged Eliot before quickly letting go and running back inside to get her ropes to help unload it. It took a bit of a struggle to get inside. More than once Eliot didn't think it was going to make it through the doorway into the main dining area. Somehow they managed to get it to fit through and Parker used a couple of pulleys to help stand it up in the large Christmas tree stand Eliot had also bought. They spent the next hour putting up ornaments before finally handing up the star for Parker to put on top. 

As the three of them backed up together to admire their handiwork, Hardison spoke up. "Alright, I'll admit it. This is definitely better than the same dusty tree as last year." Then he sneezed. Eliot and Parker just laughed before kissing him on either cheek and pulling Hardison upstairs. 

  
  
  


**December 3rd, 22 days until Christmas**

Parker announces there’s a last-minute job to take care of before the holidays. She usually tries to avoid jobs around big events if she can. Of course, bad guys didn't seem to get into the holiday spirit when it came to illegal dealings. Someone still has to make sure that they pay for any wrongdoings. So the three of them fly out together to this little town in Illinois to help a farmer with a bank falsifying some documents. It's time-sensitive, which is the reason why Parker still agreed to do the job with Christmas so close. Foreclosing on someone's house right before the holidays, leaving a whole family out on the streets with no assistance or way to recoup their income. It was pretty low. Eliot was happy to help. A change of scenery with completely different shops could even mean that he can find the perfect present while on a job. It's a win-win situation. 

  
  


**December 9th, 12 days until Christmas**

The job wrapped up with time to spare before Christmas. The farmer got to keep his home and wouldn't be threatened by the bank again as it was under investigation for corruption. The team was even able to gift the family some extra money for Christmas presents. Overall, it ended up being a very good trip but now Eliot only had 12 days to find the presents he needed. He had searched through all the local stores over their stay in town. Nothing. He had even resorted to looking through some of the airport gift shops while the team was flying back. While he found tons of snowglobes and other seasonal souvenirs, nothing suited his favorite people. Eliot returned to the brewpub and set his sights on looking finding some store in Portland that night to have what he needed. It was going to be a long 12 days. 

**December 16th, 9 days until Christmas**

Eliot's next few days of searching had not gone well. At this point, he must have visited every single comic book shop and locally owned store throughout Portland. Things were getting serious now. He might even have to resort to going to a department store or the mall. The hitter grimaced at the thought. At least he knew even after a frustrating day he could return home to his two favorite people and make them dinner. He liked feeding his people and seeing them happy with what he made. Dinner tonight had been braised short ribs with homemade green chili mac and cheese. They had all ended up enjoying it. Hardison ate a bit too much and was slumped on the couch by the time Eliot had finished the dishes. Parker seemed to have wandered away somewhere. 

"Movie tonight?" Eliot asked as he finished drying his hands. He wandered over to the couch and grabbed the remote as he sat down next to Hardison. Hardison leaned in closer and Eliot wrapped his arm around Hardison's shoulders. 

Before Hardison replied, Parker skipped into the back room of the Brewpub. This early before the holidays, her outfit was a bit tamer. Bright green pants and a sweater with penguins in Santa hats. Not as gaudy a display as she was probably going to be in 8 days. Both of her hands were holding something behind her.

“I have a plan for the night!” Her smile made Eliot feel a little bit warmer though the bright look in her eyes made him more than a little cautious. 

“And what would that be darlin'?” Eliot asked. Hardison sat up a bit and leaned to see what Parker was hiding behind her back. 

“I have an early present for you all! I’ve always wanted to do one of these but always seem to run out of decorations before I actually finish it.” She then brought a cardboard box from behind her back. The packaging brightly proclaiming “Hershey's Build Your Own Chocolate Cookie House". 

Hardison and Eliot glanced at each other. “Uhh babe,” Hardison replied, “Is it that you run out of decorations, or is it because you eat them all before you even get the cookie pieces out?”

“And why in the world would you use a store-bought kit that has sat in a warehouse and then on a store shelf for probably a year, only to try and pass itself off as gingerbread?” Eliot added.

"If they're going to put candy in a package, they should add enough so you can eat some but still decorate," Parker answered Hardison and turned her gaze to Eliot. "What's wrong with a chocolate cookie house for the holidays?"

"It ain't gingerbread, that's the problem," Eliot grumbled. "Not to mention that it won't smell right or last near as long. You can't even really eat that thing by the time Christmas day rolls around."

Hardison leaned away from Eliot, "Cookie houses aren't really for eating anyway. If you can do so much better, why don't you make the house." Hardison smirked. It was a face that Eliot had seen many times before. One that Alec usually wore when he knew he was going to get something out of teasing Eliot. in this case, that was an entire set of homemade gingerbread. 

Eliot leaned his head onto the back of the couch, "I just finished dishes. Not to mention, I don't even know if we have all of the spices needed for a good gingerbread." Eliot tilted his head back down to see both Parker and Hardison pouting at him with large eyes. He sighed, damn his inability to say no to them. "Fine, but I ain't gonna scrubbing all those bowls again. Y'all better be helping." 

The night flew by after that. Eliot dug out his older recipe books. It had been a present from his mom and was full of all alterations to different recipes. It'd been a while since he had made gingerbread but soon enough their apartment was filled with the smell of ginger, cinnamon, and cloves. He had to keep a spoon in hand to swat away various fingers from stealing pieces of the dough before it could be shaped into cookies and a house. 

"Alec, you have already checked the dough's 'freshness' twice. If I catch you doing it again I'm having Parker tie you up, and not in the fun way."

They used chocolate icing for the house joints and icicles. It had been Parker's idea.

"I know how much you both love chocolate but our house is going to look like it just went through a mudslide," Hardison said with a leer at both of them. Then he proceeded to scoop up a piece of icing that had fallen onto the counter with his finger and suck it off his finger, looking at them both suggestively. 

Parker gave him a shove, "Sex later, gingerbread house now." She was diligently working away making a little frosting walkway up to where the house would stand.

As Eliot was assembling the house itself, he gave Parker and Hardison 5 different ginger people that he had cut out to decorate. Once the house was standing and it looked like it wouldn't immediately fall over, Eliot set about finding some suitable candies to decorate with. The marshmallows from Parker's cereal was scattered around. As did her stash of M&Ms, and red hots. Hardison ran downstairs to the pub when he remembered that they had some peppermints in a bowl by the door. He also grabbed one of his bags of gummy frogs and placed those around the house as added decoration. Eliot didn't like candy very much so he didn't add much. He did end up standing up some cinnamon sticks to look like a fence around the house and it didn't even turn out half bad. 

By the time he had finished with the fence, Hardison was finishing up with the dishes. Parker had eaten her way through almost everything that was in her original gingerbread house box, despite Eliot's protests. For the last step, he wandered over to the cupboards and pulled out a bag of powdered sugar and a sifter. "And for our final touch," he started to sift the sugar over the entire house, covering it in the dust. "After all, what's Christmas without some snow?" He winked at Hardison. Both of his partners were beaming. It may have been a stressful day of shopping but these two, they could make any evening better. 

**December 21st, 4 days until Christmas**

With only four days left to go, Eliot was finally left with only one option. He wasn't known for dodging his problems. He was a hitter, he faced them head-on. With that thought in mind, Eliot woke up before either of his partners, quickly dressed, and only allowed himself a minute or two of looking at how sweet they looked cuddled together in their bed. Then he put on his shoes, grabbed his coffee, and headed for the mall. 

He knew Washington Square was going to be insane, a mall the week before Christmas was bound to be crowded. What he didn't expect was just how crowded it would be. It took him nearly half an hour of inching through the parking lot aisles before he finally managed. He quickly parked and power walked inside. The mall interior wasn't much better, people were pushing and shoving. Moms that got some time away from their kids were finishing off lists. Dads were distracting kids by taking them to see Santa for photos. It was ridiculous. Eliot stumbled and moved to the side as people just pushed right past him. He had no idea where to even start. He slowly made his way from store to store. He sidestepped between groups of teens and dodged little children who managed to get loose from their parents. As visited each store, methodically looking through their various wares and avoiding salesclerk's offers of assistance, he felt a little bit more of hit hope for finding anything here disappear. Hours later, he finally reached the far end of the mall. He had looked in every single store and still had nothing to show for it. 

Set up outside one of the large department stores was a tree with different paper angels on it. There was a lady in a nurse's uniform there attempting to wave down mall patrons. Next to her stood a sign that read in bright green letters "Adopt an Angel: Help the kids of Doernbecher's Children Hospital". Eliot paused, the tree was mostly empty, with only 6 ornaments left. But based on the look of the crowd, it didn't look like anyone was going to pay the worker any attention until after Christmas. Well, at least some good could come out of today. He made his way over to the table. 

"So, uh, how do I do this?" He gestured to the tree. Where the few paper angels hung sadly. 

"Oh!" The worker seemed excited to have someone to actually talk to, "It's pretty simple, you look over the ornaments. Each one has different items like toys, games, and activities that you can buy here at the mall. We ask that you buy each child at least 2 items off the list. After that, anything age-appropriate is fair game. When you figure out which angel you want to adopt, I give you one of these bags and you fill it with whatever items you want to buy. Then you return here and I collect the items and your name and address for a thank you card."

Eliot nodded along with the worker's spiel. It was clearly well-rehearsed and she'd had a lot of practice explaining everything. "Alright, I'll join in then."

"Great!" The lady turned her back to him and grabbed all the angels off the tree. "These are the only options we have left, feel free to take whatever one you like."

"Can I..." Eliot paused, "Would it be alright if I just took all of them?" 

"Oh! Wow! Of course! You definitely do not have to, usually, people grab only one or two. Every little bit helps, you know?" Eliot did know, but no kid should be stuck in a hospital over the holidays. And if they had to be, he wanted to help them feel a little bit better about it. So he grabbed all six wish lists. The worker handed him his six red sacks and ventured back out into the rest of the mall. Over the course of the next couple of hours, he filled up all of the bags with as many presents as he could fit into them. Board games, clothes, a chemistry kit, stuffed bears that were helping to raise money for another charity. Just about everything of the kids' lists and then some was added to the bags. As the bags got bigger it definitely got harder to push through the crowds. Not to mention carrying all that weight wasn't easy. Still not as hard as dragging along a dead guy who he was attached to with handcuffs though; not much would've been more difficult than that.

He returned to the table to find the nurse on the phone. When she saw Eliot her eyes widened and she quickly ended her call. "Holy shit!" She exclaimed and moved out from behind the table to help him with the presents. "You really didn't need to do this. I mean, it's amazing and the kids will be just ecstatic to open these up but geez!" She balanced all of the bags on top of a trunk on wheels. "Really, thank you so much. The hospital always makes sure that the kids get something but we're a bit tight on funding this year so more expensive items like this are super appreciated." She pulled a pen out of the front pocket of her shirt and grabbed her clipboard off the table. "So what's your name and address?"

"No thanks needed. Just say it was from Santa." With that Eliot turned and let the crowd sweep him back in the direction of his car. 

~

A few hours later, as Eliot was preparing dinner, Hardison came out of his glass-encased workshop. His hands were covered in some kind of black dust that he was off with a rag. He nudged Eliot over to wash his hands. 

"So you wanna tell me why I got a notification that over a thousand dollars were taken out of your account at the mall today?" Hardison asked. He reached over to grab the towel. 

"Hardison," Eliot grunted, "You aren't supposed to be looking at my expenditures right now. What about no spoiling your gift?"

"Hey man," Hardison raised his hands defensively, "I haven't been, but I do get notified if you spend over a thousand bucks in an hour."

"I was just helping out someone at the mall, you know spreading the Christmas cheer." 

"You? At the mall? Must've been important." Eliot just glared at Hardison who backed away and headed back into his sanctum of a workshop. 

**December 24th, 7 hours till Christmas**

Well, that was it. Eliot had nothing to show for days upon days of searching. Hours of looking today and nothing stood out to him. He had visited all of the malls in town, probably talked with every salesperson. Finally, on his last day of desperation, he resorted to looking through various pawn shops. He ended up settling for a copy of some role-playing game for Hardison. It had looked old and had superheroes on it so as long as Hardison didn't already own a copy, it should be fine. For Parker, he got a puzzle box which the pawnbroker showed him how to open. Inside Eliot had placed a little ornament of a pretzel. It wasn't much, certainly not worthy of their first Christmas as a triad, but it was something. 

As he climbed into his Charger and drove towards the Brewpub, snow began to fall. The streets became more crowded and he knew that traffic jams were going to be starting soon. Luckily the brewpub wasn't too far away. He pulled up and parked in front of the restaurant with 5 minutes left before he had to put the roast into the oven. At least he won't have screwed up everything about tonight. 

~

Dinner had worked out easily. After the stress of the day, cooking always helped calm him down. Hardison was still hiding out in his workshop, adding the finishing touches to his homemade presents. Parker was checking that everything was still running smoothly downstairs. A majority of their staff didn't celebrate Christmas or weren't going home to their families this year. As a result, they had chosen to stay open and have a small company celebration instead. She would come up as soon as Eliot texted her that everything was ready upstairs. 

It was nice. Eliot refused to let himself look beneath the TV stand in their apartment to where the presents were. It was too late to worry about at this point. As Eliot was finishing carving the roast, Hardison wandered back into the room. 

"That smells amazing," he said by way of greeting as he walked up behind Eliot and set his head on the hitter's shoulder. 

"You act like my cooking doesn't always smell amazing," Eliot smirked but turned and kissed Hardison on his forehead. 

"Well, maybe this one just smells especially amazing." With that, he swiped a piece of the beef and backed away before Eliot could smack him. 

Parker came up a few minutes later just as Eliot was setting the final dish on the table. She looked beautiful, like always. She had found some ugly knit sweater that proudly read "Definitely Naughty" that was matched by some elf hat covered in bells that jingled as she walked. 

"Took you long enough," Hardison said to her as she approached the table, "We were about to start eating without you." 

"Oh you wouldn't dare," she gave him a small hip check as she walked over to her seat and sat down. Eliot grabbed his glass of cider from the counter and joined them. 

Dinner was never a quiet affair in their home, Christmas made it no different. Parker rushed through recapping what had happened downstairs with the employees. Hardison joined in, adding a few jokes here and there. Apparently, he had been watching on the security cameras. All too soon dinner was finished, Parker got up and started collecting dishes. Hardison started putting leftovers away for sandwiches throughout the week. Eliot got to relax for the first time all day. It was nice, to see them work together. Effortlessly moving around each other through the kitchen, constantly aware of where the other was. 

When Hardison finally put the last Tupperware into the fridge, they all migrated into the sitting room. Parker pulled two boxes out from seemingly nowhere. Hardison quickly ducked into his workshop and came out with two cloth-wrapped cases. Lastly, Eliot snagged both of his presents out from under the TV set where he had stashed them. 

"I want to go first," Parker said and shoved a box at each of her partners. 

Eliot unwrapped his quickly. Parker may be talented at a lot of things but gift wrapping was not one of them. She somehow always ended up with weird folds all over the thing. Though he would've preferred to save the paper, she made that impossible. Inside was a sweater, made with a soft knit. He unfolded it to read the front. In bright white letters, it read "Yippee Ki-Yay Mother-" on it. Die Hard was one of Eliot's favorite Christmas movies. It was a great present. Hardison had a sweater as well, this one had the Millennium Falcon on the front and Rebel symbols on both elbows. 

"Family should have Christmas sweaters together. I got Sophie and Nate each one for when they come in." Parker looked at them both for a moment, "Well, go on, put them on already!" Once both of them had their sweaters on it was Hardison's turn. 

"Both of these are homemade." He handed Parker her cloth first. Inside was a small pouch with slots inside. It was plain black and looked like a long wallet. "It's a new case for all of your lock picks. It's cloaked in a way that you should be able to make it through airport security without it being noticed on any scanners or x-ray machines. I know that you don't like leaving your favorite sets at home or putting them through checked baggage so I figured this should help."

"It's great." She reached over and kissed Hardison. Next was Eliot's turn. His cloth wrap was a bit bigger. 

Inside was a set of black knives, made out of what looked to be carbon fiber. The handle itself was wooden as well. "This one was a bit tricker," Hardison spoke up. "I must've watched about 15 hours of different videos on knife sharpening." Eliot just stared at the gift. It definitely hadn't been what he was expecting but it was great anyway. Hardison clearly had put a lot of time into making this. As he didn't respond Hardison continued, "I know that you have your personal set of knives. If you don't like these, we can always put them up as a decoration in the kitchen or something. I just thought-" 

Eliot cut him off with a kiss. As he leaned back he asked, "I ever tell you that you talk too much?" 

Hardison chuckled, "Maybe once or twice. It isn't awful?"

"Alec," Eliot set his hand on top of his partner's. "It's great. Actually, it kind of matches Parker's I could probably make it through airport security with this." 

At long last, it was finally Eliot's turn. "Now," he began, "I don't want y'all to take these it to heart if you don't like them very much. You can just tell me, I won't be offended. I must have searched a hundred stores but there was nothing I could find that was a perfect fit. Eventually, I had to settle for something though." And then he slid both bags over to their respective owners. 

Parker dug her's out faster. She immediately started poking at the sides, shifting what few moveable pieces there were around. Hardison shuffled the tissue paper around before pulling his out too. 

"DC Heroes! I haven't played this in years!" He looked absolutely thrilled. Eliot was more than a little surprised. The book was pretty old, several pages were dog earred and he was pretty sure a past owner had written some character notes in the margins. Hardison didn't seem deterred at all and quickly started flipping through the book, murmuring out statistics and setting details. 

A few minutes later Parker finally managed to get the secret drawer on the bottom of the box to slide open, revealing the pretzel ornament. "Aww, it's perfect." She then leaned over and kissed Eliot. Turns out he was a pretty good gifter after all. 

**Christmas Morning**

The Christmas sun rose over Portland, shining a light on a snow-covered city. Eliot was up first, as usual. Today he was in no rush though. Sophie and Nate's plane would be landing in a couple of hours. The snow had meant a few delays had occurred but they would still make it well before lunch. Instead, he spent a few hours just lazing in bed, soaking in the warmth produced by the two most important people in his life. 

**Author's Note:**

> Well, that's it! I hope you liked it amarane! I know it didn't it include all of your suggestions but I hope there was enough fluff there to make up for it. 
> 
> Thanks to the mods for putting this exchange together, y'all are awesome.
> 
> If anyone was curious how Hardison managed to make a knife, here's a link:  
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCkmKgUp1ak
> 
> Thanks for reading and Happy Holidays!


End file.
